Joint assessment

Hello,
have been married for 3 years but have yet to request joint assesment. received the form for the assessable spouse' and nominated myself. However, not sure about section b of the form which looks for me to specify (1) an allocation of the tax credits and srcp. OR (2)leave the allocation as present (3) divided evenly (4) all transferrable credits transferred to the assessable spouse.

I think I need to choose option 4. background as follows. My earnings are around 70K, wifes around 35K. However, she is now on unpaid leave from work for the next 3 months. Also last year she was on maternity leave (unpaid) for most of the year.

Apologies for the silly question. Just dont want to choose the wrong option.

Thanks

If she is not earning then presumably you should transfer all credits/allowances to yourself for the moment? Are you sure that you can change to joint aggregated married taxation at this stage of the year? I thought that you had to do this before April or something like that? Make sure you request a P21 balancing statement at the end of the year in case you are owed tax. If you were on high rate tax and she was on low rate tax prior to this tax year then you may have been overpaying tax and been better off on joint aggregated married taxation. Not sure if you can backdate claims for such overpayments?

Would you qualify for the Home Carer's Tax Credit (is she at home minding kids)?

Thanks Clubman. She will be at home minding the kids alright (taking parental leave). Wasnt aware of the home carers allowance, will look into it.
If all credits were transferred, would that be the case for the year to date? would the granted credits be taken from her and added to me, hence the revenue look for a refund from her? if its a case that they just transfer credits for the remainder of the year, then thats the right option. Although thats probably what it means by 'all transferrable credits'

Also. Once I change the credits and request for a reassesment for the last number of years, would me having all the credits be counterproductive?

Thanks again

As no previous election has been made they can elect for joint assessment now. Applying for Separate Assessment is date restricted but there should be no problem with Joint assessment.

Forget about Home Carer Allowance , unless your spouse earns less than 5080 euro for tax year. There are 3 types of assessment - Single assessment , separate assessment , and joint assessment . The tax office are supposed to give you which ever one is most beneficial .
With you both working , always ask for P21 at year end and claim for all your entitlements annually.

I tried to move from Separate to Joint Assessment in May and was told it was too late for the current tax year so will need to get P21 balancing statement at year end. Hope that helps, M.

My spouse was made redundant last year and has been claiming unemployment benefit. If we elect to be taxed as a married couple, is the unemployment benefit taken into account as income or are our joint allowances available to us against my income???

tayto2008 said:

My spouse was made redundant last year and has been claiming unemployment benefit. If we elect to be taxed as a married couple, is the unemployment benefit taken into account as income or are our joint allowances available to us against my income???

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Unemployment Benefit ( now called Jobseekers Benefit ) is taxable as income. I believe the first €13 per week is not taxable. Also amounts included in JSB for children are also exempt from tax. You need therefore to ascertain the "taxable element" and that would be taken into account by Revenue on any joint claim.